


true love’s kiss from the prince

by makoharued



Series: the Prince & his Princess [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Established Relationship, HiyoIku, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 01:58:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17112284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makoharued/pseuds/makoharued
Summary: They were floating in nothingness, in a timeline of the unknown, but ironically he felt everything; the warmth of the light, the pressure of the man’s heated lips, and for the first time in forever, the beating of his own heart.





	true love’s kiss from the prince

**Author's Note:**

> Ｋｉｎｔｓｕｇ i •【金継ぎ】n.  
> • Golden joinery  
> — the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique.  
> — broken things are a part of a history and be treated as whole and better than ever

 

When he first saw the light, the first thought that came to his mind was

_Pain._

  
Reaching out into the void, he didn’t know where his body started or ended. He couldn’t feel his own body. However, he knew

 _It_ _hurt_.

He was exhausted, confused, and lost. Nothing in his mind made sense. Where was he? Why was he here? What did he do? Questions swam in his mind like he was in the eye of a whirlpool - everything was spinning simultaneously and he could only catch glimpses of maybe forgotten memories.

He tried opening his eyes because he could feel the light under his eyelids.

The gold-tinged light was overflowing, seeping through the sliver of his eyes, like golden syrup. It took him eons to adjust his eyes after being in the dark for far too long - he had lost count of the years.  
  
He searched for the light source but was surprised when he found out that the illumination was coming from his own body. He was the one who was illuminating in the dark. Lights were shining through every broken crack of his body. He tried touching the cracks. It didn’t hurt. But small cracks kept appearing at new places and panic slowly creeped into his chest.

What surprised him for the second time was that on his body, there were parts where the cracks were already being filled with gold. It started at his forearms, through his torso and his thighs, and ended at his heels. When he traced his fingers over them, the bumps of the gold-filled skin felt cold under his touch.

 _Why_? _Why_ _are_ _the_ _cracks_ …?

His skin was still cracking, and the new cracks crawled all over his body. He could feel his soul baring and emptying as the cracks grew larger.

 _No_. _Stop_ …

At this point, he had trouble breathing. His breathing caught short. He couldn’t feel his lungs even though he was wheezing hard to catch his breath.

 _Someone_ … _help_.

Just when he was about to give up, he caught a ray of bright light from afar between his almost-shut lids. Brighter than his own body. A man stood two metres away from him, his face blurred with light. Ikuya could only see his smiling lips. Everywhere else was blurry.

 _Ikuya_ …

The lips didn’t move but the voice was clear in his mind. The man hovered closer to him, the smile never leaving his obscure face. He was supposed to be afraid of this unfamiliar presence in the dark void but instead, he felt nothing but peace. The closer the man got, the calmer Ikuya felt.

 _Ikuya_ …

The man then stopped directly in front of him. And Ikuya hadn’t realised that he had been holding his breath.

“Ikuya.”

With a sharp intake of breath, Ikuya felt he should recognise the voice. He racked his brain for the memory but alas, his mind was fuzzy and numb – just like his whole body.

 _Who_ …?

“Ikuya.” Again.

With that voice as soft as silk and dripping as acacia honey, he felt oddly reassured. The man slowly took Ikuya’s hands into his and kissed every spot he could lay his lips on. Every hollow crack. Every gold-filled skin. Not missing any nook or cranny.

They were floating in nothingness, in a timeline of the unknown, but ironically he felt everything; the warmth of the light, the pressure of the man’s heated lips, and for the first time in forever, the beating of his own heart.

The man was repeatedly calling Ikuya’s name. Ikuya thought, he made it sound like a song.

 _No_ , it was more than that. He said it like a prose poetry. Ikuya was the poem and the man was the poet. Every syllable and every phoneme, the poet uttered them with the highest integrity and it was the definition of love, care, and devotion.

Feeling overwhelmed, he felt hot liquid flowing out of his eyes – it wasn’t water. It was molten gold. He was crying tears of gold. Every time he wiped it, more of it oozed out. He started panicking again but the man held his wrists and calmed him down, “it’s alright, Ikuya. It’s okay.”

The man steered his attention to Ikuya’s face and then softly kissed all of the golden tears that were streaming down his face. The man chuckled softly then breathed out, “not only do you have a golden heart, but your tears are too.”

The man embraced him and engulfed him with warmth and light. His arms stayed on Ikuya’s hips. He smelled and tasted of honey with that tinge of zesty orange blossoms’ fragrance. He smelled familiar. He smelled like home. The man hummed him a soft lullaby and Ikuya could feel it reverberating through his chest and his whole body. Slowly, he found himself drifting in and out of sleep until he completely shut his eyes.

 

Like in his dream, it took Ikuya some time to adjust to the bright light.

As he lay flat on his chest, a warm hand was holding his hands near his face. No. Actually, he was the one who was holding the hand with his two hands, clutching and holding it tightly as if his life depended on it. Gently, the thumb of the hand brushed the corner of his lips as if the hand was doing it unconsciously to soothe Ikuya’s unnerving mind.

The subtle touch made him look up to the owner of the hand – sitting upright on the bed with only the duvet covering his naked lower body, basking handsomely in the Sunday morning’s sunlight, and reading a book was the person he never thought would be his. The person who he knew would be there for him. The person that would never give up on him —Hiyori.

As if he was reading Ikuya’s mind, Hiyori smiled at the book. ‘It must have been the good part of the book.’ Ikuya absentmindedly thought as the bright smile of his loved one made him smile too.

“Ah,” Hiyori looked at him with a small surprised expression but it later softened into a smile. “Sorry, did I wake you up?”

 _Too_ _bright_.

Hiyori leaned down to him and planted a soft kiss on his forehead, “Good morning, Ikuya.”

The soft touch reminded Ikuya of honey, orange blossoms, and hom— suddenly, the dream he just had flashed before his eyes and everything clicked.

 _Hiyori_.

The blurred, bright face became crystal clear. It was really him. The shining smile. The soft kisses. The bright light. It had been him all along.

Unbeknownst to Ikuya, tears started sliding down his face because of how overwhelmed he felt. He didn’t have any words for it. And he thought that no word would be able to precisely describe it.

If it wasn’t for Hiyori, he would have still been trapped in the dark void forever. Aimlessly floating in nothingness. Alone.

Hiyori frowned, worried upon seeing his tears flowing from his eyes, “Eh, Ikuya? Are you alright?”

Ikuya covered himself with the duvet. But he never let go of Hiyori’s hand so instead, he held it even tighter. Letting the tears drop one at a time with his nose sniffled.

The bedsheet near him shifted. He could feel Hiyori’s warmth closing him in. Even with the duvet as a barrier between them, he could clearly see what Hiyori was trying to do — the thing he always does when Ikuya had nightmares. Hiyori laid down beside Ikuya and hugged him with his free hand, duvet and all.

“Is it one of your nightmares again?” As he rubbed Ikuya’s covered back, he whispered slowly, “it’s alright, Ikuya. It’s okay.”

Simultaneously, the voice from his dream resonated with what Hiyori had said. He couldn’t stop the tears and his sobbing became louder. They stayed like that for a while. Just him, Hiyori, and the rays of light of a Sunday morning.

As time passed by, Ikuya’s sniffles died down and his eyes hurt from crying too much. The image in his mind of himself wasn’t pretty. He was a mess. But, that didn’t stop Hiyori from trying to peek under the duvet.

“Feeling better now?” Hiyori’s smile was dazzling. Ikuya had to turn his face away in embarrassment.

“Hiyori.” Ikuya croaked after crying for so long, so he cleared his throat.

“Yes?” Hiyori’s smile just got wider and wider.

“Come closer.”

Hiyori tilted his head, confused for a second but he did what Ikuya said. He put more of his head in under the duvet. Their faces were inches apart and Ikuya grabbed this chance to take in Hiyori’s face with both of his hands, hastening a kiss on Hiyori’s lips.

Hiyori’s eyes were unblinking because of how surprised he was. Ikuya rarely initiated things. In Hiyori’s mind, he couldn’t help but to wonder why his little prince was so adorable. Not wanting to let this golden opportunity pass, Hiyori slowly closed his eyes to just melt into the sensation of a true love’s kiss, under the soft duvet, on a Sunday morning, from the Prince himself.

  
— end —

**Author's Note:**

> FIRST OF ALL THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR CLICKING AND READING THIS I LOVE YALL (ˊᵒ̴̶̷̤ ꇴ ᵒ̴̶̷̤ˋ) 
> 
> this is pure self-indulgence bcs i love my two soft sons together and they deserved the world ok i just like the idea of ikuya being too overwhelmed by hiyori’s abundant love and affection and just him realising how lucky he was. bcs that’s my fricking jam man
> 
> this is a sequel to my [The Prince and His Princess](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16175426). So check it out if you haven’t! But if you dont it’s fine too it could be read as a stand alone too lmao no pressure 
> 
> comments and kudos are very much appreciated! 💚💜🥰
> 
> and also major shout out to [Victoria (@CMeister)](https://twitter.com/CoffeeMeisterx) and [Yuu (@nakimochin)](https://twitter.com/nakimochin) for beta’d this ya guys are the mvp


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